Lessons U.S. Can Learn

In heavily networked Japan and South Korea, young people don't think twice about using their mobile phones to create short movies, watch the Webcam inside their home or download pop songs from the Internet, reports the
WSJ.

Lesson No. 1: Phones need to be sleek and small. Bulky phones are not popular.

Lesson No. 2: Target the youth market. In Asia, phone companies went after this group initially rather than business customers.

Lesson No. 3: Teaming up produces results. Japanese and Korean mobile operators worked in close collaboration with local phone makers to devise innovative services.

Final lesson: Don't make companies bid for new parts of the wireless spectrum to offer 3G. This cost operators in Europe a lot of money. Japan and South Korea didn't hold auctions for 3G licenses, which meant Asian providers could spend money instead on research and development.

emily | 9:10 AM | Reports |
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